The Fourth Down Play in "Pictures"
I kind of hate to get involved in this, but I did get some screen grabs of video from the ill-fated fourth down play in Kalamazoo. As you will recall, it was late first half and BG had a purported 4th and six inches, though there was never a measurement, and tried to quick sneak the ball. For reference, this is the play before. You can see the linesman on the bottom of the screen is marking the ball at around the 18 yard line.
BG was short by more than six inches, and Coach Clawson reacted like this.
He clearly thought that Schilz had made a first down, and challenged the play. Given what is below, you won't be surprised it was tough to overcome with a replay.
Let's look at what we can see....
You can see Matt Schilz in there. He's about two yards tall, but he'd have to be laying flat to make that work. His feet are pretty close to the 20--I think it is reasonable, based on these shots, to give him progress fully to the 18 yard line but I can't see much more than that. (Remember, it is where the ball is, not his head).
And the officials did give him the 18....
which was short....
which caused Coach Clawson to go like this....
Anyway, it was a big play. It seems like we should be able to make it, and maybe the call was off, but based on the video, I would say that it is far from clear cut that it was a first down.
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2 comments :
When I saw Clawson react like that- specifically point at something or someone it made me wonder what he was saying. He had to be saying something more than "he got it, he got it" but what is he saying? Is he pointing to where the ball was originally spotted when the play ended? Was his contention that the original spot after the sneak was closer to the first down? He was specifically gesticulating at something to make his point and I was extremely curious as to what he could have been saying. Guess we need Greg Franke down on the sidelines again!
I just assumed he thought they marked the ball short of where he ended up and he was point to where it would be. Maybe they moved the spot back. He said after the game that he thought they made it.
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